


I'll Never Leave You

by redsoapterminal3



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bad Person Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne is Not Okay, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Needs A Hug, How Do I Tag, Murder, No Slash, Organized Crime, Sorry Not Sorry, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:53:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27461509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsoapterminal3/pseuds/redsoapterminal3
Summary: Tim Drake finds something he wasn't supposed to while digging through the batcomputers files. Batman isn't who he seems.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Comments: 22
Kudos: 119





	I'll Never Leave You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and I kinda threw cannon out the window for this. Many things are the same, but Tim has been aged down for this, and Jason and Dick are a little younger than they should be. I haven't really figured that out yet. If I continue, I will hash it out. Dick, Jason, and Tim are vigilantes working with Batman. This fic was inspired by another fic that I could not find, therefore I wrote it instead. If you know the fic this came from, please comment so I can give the due credit.

The bats in the cave were restless tonight. Shifting and tittering at the keyboard strokes echoing through the cave. The quiet clinks of vials being set into their stand. The only audible noise made by a human was Robin's quiet, steady breathing as he searched through the batcomputer's data. Batman worked silently behind his most recently acquired Robin and son of 6 months, testing a new version of Scarecrow's toxin, looking for an antidote. Tim was seated in front of the batcomputer dwarfed in Bruce's chair, kicking his feet through the air. A small smile tugged at the corner of Bruce's mouth as he watched the tiny little Robin look so serious and content while quickly sorting through the files on the batcomputer. Absorbing everything with intense calculating blue eyes, then swiftly moving on to the next. Tim had made it a goal to memorize all the information on the Villains of Gotham. An almost impossible endeavor, but Bruce let him anyway, thinking it was cute how excited he had become upon making the goal. 

Tim was utterly absorbed in his goal, reading over each file carefully and doing his best to commit it to memory. As he dug through the files deeper and deeper into the batcomputer, Tim couldn't help but notice an encrypted folder hidden in the depths of the hardware. Tim felt his insatiable curiosity pull at him. He climbed up the back of the chair to peek his head of black hair over the top, hoping to ask Bruce what the file contained. The cave was empty of anyone except Tim. He couldn't help but feel a roll of anxiety and fear crash though him at being left alone without notice. Just as Jack and Janet Drake had done regularly for months at a time, only to leave him alone within days of returning home to him. 

He remembered all the missed birthdays where his parents hadn't sent a gift or even called him. The lonely cold Christmases in the too-big house that was so silent it was suffocating. The one Christmas he did get a phone call was to inform him he was using too much heat and costing them too much money. He had turned down the heat and bundled up in multiple jackets with two extra pairs of socks. That winter, he hardly left his bed, he was so cold. All the Christmases were extra cold after that one. He was too afraid to use too much heat and be even more of a burden to his parents. He hadn't even been able to remember the last time he had seen them before they died. They had been attacked by criminals who were after the artifacts they had just found at their most recent dig. Janet Drake hadn't even made it to the hospital alive. Jack Drake was left in a coma until an addict attacked multiple staff and patients looking for drugs at the hospital her grandmother was being treated at. The same hospital Jack was in. Jack Drake was caught in the crossfire and killed after being held hostage for pain medication. He was stabbed multiple times in a fit of psychosis and rage. She later claimed she was forced to do it. There was no evidence of blackmail. Just an addict too high to see the reality around her. After that, Tim truly was alone. He thought he was alone before, but somehow this was worse. There was no hope of them coming home anymore.

He remembered sitting in the police station, shivering with a bitter cold settling in his bones. It seemed all he ever felt was cold, for years on end. It was just getting worse. The cold had spread outside too. If he had only been quieter or more polite, maybe they wouldn't have left early for their trip that killed them. Maybe if he hadn't been so needy and made his own breakfast, they would have stayed. Then a big warm hand settled on his shoulder. He looked up to see Bruce Wayne smiling softly at him with sad empathetic eyes. "Hey there, son, I'm going to be taking care of you. I know your parents are gone but don't worry, I'll never leave you." Bruce had picked him up and wrapped him in a warm blanket, and took him to his home filled with warm laughter and life. It was so different than the Drake Manor. The noise and being touched, hugged, and cuddled took a while to get used to. They wanted to hear what he had to say. They said they loved him, that they thought he was cute. In a way, he didn't think he'd ever be used to being loved. He always craved interaction with his new dad and new siblings, whether that be a hug or their attention while he gushed about his day at school or the latest break in a case. His dream had come true, Batman had come, and he got to be his Robin. He found himself seeking Bruce out, tucking himself against the older man's warm side while Bruce went over reports from his company and cases he gathered as Batman. Bruce would always wrap him up and cuddle him after a minute. It wasn't long before Tim called him dad. He never had a real dad before he had realized. Bruce was the perfect dad, and Tim was warm and well-loved with him. He even was helping Tim plan his first-ever birthday party. Bruce had taken work off and everything for the day. He hoped Bruce never got tired of him like his parents did. He would be the best son Bruce could ever have so that he would never stop loving him.

Tim took a deep breath and reminded himself that Bruce was Batman. He promised he would never leave Tim behind, and Batman was one of the good guys, so he wouldn't lie, right? Tim shook himself, of course he wouldn't, Tim followed Batman and his Robins for years. He saw how good they were to people. He turned back around and plopped himself back in the giant chair, pulling the black sherpa blanket around himself that Bruce left in the chair just for him, and got to work on the encryption. Tim lost himself in cracking the encryption, so focused on it was he that Batman reentering the cave went completely unnoticed by him. A grin broke out on Tim's face as he finally cracked the encryption. As the newly discovered files flicked up onto the screen, Tim's smile faded as he read over the new information.

The first file had an outline of Richard (Dick) Grayson, listed was his physical appearance, specifically his blue eyes, black hair, his skills were detailed, a sparkling personality, and his intelligence. Then a newspaper clipping of the death of a circus's star performers, The Flying Graysons. A small family of three who had fallen to their death, leaving their son Richard Grayson as the only survivor. Until he was adopted by Bruce Wayne. Tim frowned, sympathy clouding around him for his oldest brother's loss. Tim noticed a financial report tucked into Dick's file as he was about to exit out of it. A transaction to one Anthony Zucco from one of Batman, not Bruce Wayne's accounts.

Tim felt an anxious curiosity rear up once again as he dug deeper into the file. Tim pulled up a communication log, this one in the style Batman liked best as he had taught it to all his Robins for record-keeping purposes. He looked the information over intently, his heart pounding and dread rising. Details telling Zucco how the trapeze equipment works, tamper with it, and make it look faulty. Specifics that should be done to ensure which part of the routine the equipment should fail at and a threat of what would happen if Dick Grayson was on the trapeze when it failed. "The boy is to be left alive, he will be taken care of." Tim felt his face blanch and his stomach turn at the written words. He could almost hear Bruce's deep baritone rumbling out the words. Batman couldn't have orchestrated Dick's parents' fall. He wouldn't do that, Tim thought frantically. Yet the evidence was all here. It was one of Batman's hidden accounts, Batman's communication logs. And Dick had been taken care of, just not how Zucco thought he would be. Tim felt himself start to shake as panic raced across his mind and dread pooled in his stomach. What was in the rest of these files?

Tim's hand shook as he exited out of Dick Grayson's file and only to find a file on his second oldest brother. Tim felt sick as he looked over the outline. Jason Todd, blue eyes, black hair, located on the streets of Gotham cold and hungry. He was intelligent, resource full, and could hold his own in a fight at a young age. His mom had overdosed, and his dad lost custody after going to prison. This one couldn't be the same situation, could it? Jason had been abused and neglected. Burce couldn't have done the same horrible things as he had done to Dick's parents. Tim felt icy fingers climb up his back as he clicked on the first of possibly incriminating evidence. Nausea rose as he read over another communication log with a video attached. The communication log stated how Catherine Todd's regular drug dealer had been given tainted drugs with two crisp hundreds and the request to get them to Catherine Todd. Along with a threat, he would send a video of his daughter in a fight to her university; that just so happened to have a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior. 

Tim felt sweat gathering on his forehead, sliding down his back as his panic hit an all-time high. A record of Gotham PD receiving an anonymous tip on Willis Todd, who was suspected of being one of Two Face's thugs that provided enough evidence to put him away for 22 years in prison. Tim found a bribe to the prison warden. Willis Todd's cellmates were all from the most violent of Penguin's gang. He didn't last more than a month. Willis was stabbed twice in his sleep, once in the throat and once in the liver. The gang managed to keep it quiet until Willis had bled out. 

Tim sat back in his seat, dizziness distorting his vision, the cold seeping into his bones. But Jason had died. Talia Al Gul had dipped him in the Lazzerous pit to bring him back in order to turn him on the family. But Bruce had found him and brought him back before she could. He had heard the stories, Dick and Bruce had helped him through the pit madness. Unless Talia never had Jason at all. Tim lunged forward frantically, searching deeper, looking to see if his theory was right. Catherine had been Jason's stepmom, his real mom Sheila Haywood had sold her child to the Joker who had killed both mother and child. Everything checked out until Tim found the travel logs for the Batplane. A clear flight path from the sight of Jason's death to the lair of the demon head himself, Ras Al Gul. The mission report detailed Batman's break-in into the League of Assassins compound, his descent into the hidden underground cave holding the Lazarus pit, and finally, a video was attached. Tim felt pure horror cross his face as he watched his father gently set his brother into the glowing green waters filling the pit. Jason ripped himself upright in the pit, holding onto his head and screamed. His scream was the sound of a soul living in hell. His eyes glowed green as opposed to their normal blue, the forelock of his hair had turned pure white. Tim heard Bruce's voice coaxing Jason to him after a few minutes, cradling him till his screams subsided, then he carried him back to the batplane. The travel log showed he went straight home. The blanket wasn't warm enough anymore. Tim felt tremors wracking his body, he couldn't stop now. There was one more file left, Tim's file.

What had Bruce done to his parents, what had he done? Tim forced his hand steady so he could click on the last file in the encrypted folder. Timothy Jackson Drake, Black hair and blue eyes, highly intelligent, small and fast on his feet, good photographer. Under normal circumstances, Tim would have smiled at the reference to his old habit of sneaking out to photograph Batman and Robin when he was younger. Now it just filled him with more dread and pain than he cared to admit. A payment had been made to the local gang that attacked Tim's parents with the message no one should live through the attack. Tim felt tears blur his vision. He sat back and gathered the blanket around himself, and just tried to breathe. His breaths came in short gasps as he tried to calm himself. He had to see, he had to know what happened. He forced himself onward. The news report of the attack on the Drakes stated Jack Drake lived and was in the hospital, a note was underneath it in Bruce's calm elegant handwriting. No parent can live this time. Sheila was a mistake that will not be repeated. The money trail led to the purchase of Scare Crow's fear toxin off a thief, then shipped with a payment that was made to a vengeful and jealous Ex Boyfriend with more instructions to drug his ex-girlfriend and tell her he would be killed if she didn't kill Jack Drake in the hospital. The boyfriend added a request for pain medication for himself as well. Her drugged fear succeeded in killing Jack Drake. The Ex-boyfriend disappeared a week later with no trace. Tim felt a cold hand squeeze his heart, his gasp ragged.

Tim felt denial rise up, choking him as his heart pounded in his chest. Batman had killed them. Batman had killed all his Robin's parents. Each Robin had been targeted for one reason or another. Through meticulous planning, their parents were then killed. Their killers framed, or when they were guilty they were paid through an anonymous source only to be caught by the police and killed later in one way or another. Giving Bruce the opportunity he needed to sweep in and take his chosen children home. 

"What did you find Tim?" A deep rumbling voice sounded right next to Tim. His head snapped up looking at Bruce, standing beside the chair looking over the files Tim had uncovered. Tim felt panic rising in his chest, shock and fear warring over one another. He needed to run. He had to tell the others, but how do you run from Batman. He's stronger and faster than Tim. He knew it was hopeless, but he had to try.

"Oh Tim, why did you have to find that. It was encrypted for a reason son." Bruce rumbled, his timber echoing in the cave. Tim shed his blanket and tried to jump over the back of the chair only for Bruce to catch his ankle and drag the small boy backward. Bruce caught Tim against his chest with a grunt, one arm cinched around his middle, the other catching the boy's legs around his thighs. Stopping Tim from kicking. Bruce shifted Tim in his arms, freeing up a hand so he could quickly jabbing a dart with a sedative on it into Tim's skinny arm. "Well, it can't be helped. I guess we need to talk." As Tim faded out, he felt Bruce wrap him back up in the black sherpa blanket and was cradled in Bruce's thick muscled arms. "Don't worry son, this changes nothing. I promised I would never leave you didn't I? I'll keep you safe, and you will always be loved just like your brothers."

**Author's Note:**

> Alfred isn't here because he wouldn't let this happen. Once again if you have an idea of similar fics let me know so I can try to find the lost fic and give credit! Thank you for reading, I look forward to your thoughts on this.


End file.
